A TACHIXIl) PARASITE UF THE HOXEY BEE. 



By S. 11. Skaife, M.A., M.8c. 

 ]] ifJt Si,r Te.rf Fi()ures. 



Read Jul,, 15, 1920. 



I In vol. xv of the " Annals of the South African Museum " 

 (IJ)lti), Dr. J. Villeneiive described a new genus and species 

 of Tacliin()-( )estrid fly from South Africa, Avhich he named 

 Ilotidaniorcsftus apt corns. The genus and .species was founded 

 on a sing-le specimen, a male, from Port Elizabeth, " alleged 

 to have been bied from a honey bee (F. W. Fitzsimmons)." 

 Dr. Villeneuve adds a note that " this biolog'ical indication 

 is the more interesting- that nothing- was hitlierto known of 

 the habits of the Tachino-lJestrid Diptera." But this fly 

 seems to have been known since lOOi), for Mr. A. J. Attridge, 

 of Capetown, has kindly jjointed out to nie a passage in Sladen's 

 " Queen-Eearing' in England," wiiicdi reads as follows: — 



" Parasite in Bee's Abdomen. — Mr. A. C. Sewcll, of Durban, Natal, 

 sent to tbe 'Beekeepers' Record" in Febrnary, 1903, a remarkal)le look- 

 ing fly-maggot which had l)een squeezed out of the abdomen of a living 

 worker honey bee, and which was forwarded to me for inspection. 

 Later on, Mr. Sewell found a second specimen of this larva on the glass 

 of his solar wax extractor, and from this he succeeded in breeding the 

 perfect fly. Both the fly and its pupa-case were forwarded to me, and 

 J took all three specimens to Mr. Austen, of the British Museum, who 

 kindly gave me some interesting information about them. There seems 

 to be no reason to doul)t that ))oth larva and fly are the same species. 

 The fly reseml)les in size and appearance the common house fly, Musca 

 dontesfjca, and belongs to the same family. Muscular, which is a very 

 extensive one, and comprises nearly half the known species of flies. 

 It also belongs to the sub-family Tachininac, which, too, is largely 

 repre.sented in England. The Tachininav are all (in the larval stage") 

 parasitic ;n the bodies of insects, chiefly caterpillars. Although there 

 seem to he few 'ecords of their occupying the liodies of perfect insects, 

 such cases no don1)t frequently occur. So far as 1 know, this is the 

 first recorded case of an insect larva having been oliserved to inhabit 

 the honey liee. The two posteiior .stigmata (Ineathing orifices) of the 

 larva are developed into two exceptionally large and curious hard, 

 black plates." 



Mr. Attridge also states in a letter to me that he him.self 

 found a maggot in a number 'of bees at Sea Point about 

 seventeen years ago, and tliat these j)arasitic maggots were 

 also reported last winter from Groot Drakenstein. From 

 Sh\den's description, quoted above, there is little doubt but 

 that the Hy found at Durban is the same species as that 

 recorded from Port Elizabeth, and it is very probable that 

 the larvae found by Mr. Attridge at the Cape are also of the 

 same species. 



On 5th May, 1919, one of the students at the Cedara 

 School of Agriculture (H. "Whittaker) brought to me a 

 Dipterous larva, wliicli, he said, he liad seen leave the body 



